Community Service
Silver Cord Program
IHS offers a Silver Cord Program for students who participate in community service activities. The Silver Cord is awarded at the end of the student's graduation year to those seniors who have completed a minimum of 125 hours of volunteer service in the community. The hours can be completed over the course of the student's high school career. The student is responsible for:
- Locating a volunteer site
- Documenting their time
- Submitting time sheets before the deadline
- * Due May 1st of your senior year - NO EXCEPTIONS!
Community Service Guidelines
- All students who accumulate at least 125 hours of community service while in high school are recognized with a community service cord at the graduation ceremony (You can start the summer before your freshman year).
- Complete a CONTRACT online you begin your community service and turn in hours monthly (See Career & Guidance Tech for details)
Requirements
1. Community service must be for a non-profit organization, agency, or institution.
If your site is NOT non-profit your hours will not count-please make sure the site is non-profit &is not located in a private home.
2. You may not count work performed as part of your efforts to raise funds for or to assist your club or club event unless those funds are given directly to a charity or community agency.
3. Participation in performances, festivals or competitions does not count as volunteer service unless:
*The performance meets an identified community service need, and there is not admission charge or donation accepted for the performance, and student participation is of a voluntary nature, and the performance does not promote the sponsoring organization, and neither the student organization nor the sponsoring organization receives any form of payment for the performance.
4. Rehearsal and practice time may never be counted for volunteer service hours.
5. Service performed as a result of disciplinary action cannot be counted.
6. Attending meetings as part of a membership requirement cannot be counted.
7. Volunteer work done to promote a particular religious, political politician or political point of view cannot be counted as volunteer hours.
8. Students may perform service during the summer, school year, weekends, nights. vacation, etc.
9. You may not work at a site that is based out of a private residence.
10. You may not work as a TA at YHS/IHS during the school day and receive community service credit
11. Volunteering in family businesses or profit-making organization cannot be counted.
** Some suggestions or allowable exceptions: School summer programs, Atwater PALS, Merced Animal Control, Red Cross,
Each Community Service site will need to have a Community Service Contract signed and submitted for each school year. Also, please be sure to submit Monthly logs on time as there will be no Late Submissions accepted.
Below are the Community Service contracts and Monthly logs.